Interior choice: Carbon fiber vs Gloss

Crazy thing happened here; car ordered in '12 with Piano Black. Somewhere along the way, the order got screwed up (probably by us) and it arrived with Carbon Fibre. After driving a loaner with Piano Black, we were so glad to have received Carbon Fibre as the high gloss Piano can exhibit sun glare/reflection issues (but does look elegant IMO).

Apart from glare, there is also problem with fingerprints.

I had a loaner with piano black - I found the glare and the reflections to be extremely distracting. Maybe over time I would get used to it, but I really didn't like it.

Absolutely love my carbon fiber... no complaints;

I wish Tesla offered gloss carbon fiber as an option for Model S. The matte carbon fiber looks fake. After seeing the Maserati carbon fiber interior, I could not settle for the matte look in the Model S. Tesla did offer gloss carbon fiber for the Roadster, but unfortunately, not for Model S.

Also love the carbon fiber and definitely prefer it over the piano black. I've had loaners with the piano black and you've got the glare, the fingerprints, and I suspect an easily-scratched surface.

I don't think the matte CF looks fake. It looks exactly like any other matte CF I've seen. You can clearly see the fabric's weave, and the way light hits it affects its appearance. It's a neat look. I don't think I'd be as happy with it if it were glossy.

The matte carbon fiber is perfect. I'd order it again.

Obeche Wood Gloss (or Matte) with Tan Interior looks very resplendent.

RyanT said:

I'm also thinking that now with the yacht flooring it might be a good idea. That the piano black would scratch up. More for your money too.

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Is the yacht floor included now? I thought it was completely discontinued. Had a loaner with a piano black yacht floor and it looked terrible. It was badly scratched. That said, it was a loaner, so maybe it wasn't taken very good care of.

This is so much up to personal taste... some love the CF look. I personally don't.

Is there any way you can get to a Tesla store? They have samples of all the interior options.

RyanT said:

Yep, they told me it's standard equipment in every car now.

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Yuck. I noticed it was pretty common in the loaners, but I didn't know that. Stuff always rattles around in there. It doesn't look nearly as cool, but the carpet is more functional.

Love my CF trim!

Have the piano black, drove ~1000 miles over last 3 weeks, including in very sunny (albeit very cold) weather. Not sure about glare comments, this is the first I hear of it, has not occurred to me. I suppose if the sun hits at just the right angle it could happen - but that is with every reflecting surface in any car.
Fingerprints? Where from? Why would you need to touch the trim? I get fingerprints on the screen, but none on the trim. Carbon fiber looks nice too, but in my opinion, piano black was more elegant.

They both look pretty cool, especially with a black interior.

On a related item, I'm surprised to see black alcantara now being used on the top of the dash in the areas closest to the occupants. If you order the car with a white alcantara headliner, this creates a bit of a clash, especially if you order wood trim. Too many different materials that don't bend together! CF or Piano Black trim would make this less of an issue. I don't know whether this black alcantara on the dash is going in every car or not, but if I had a choice, I'd request the original dash-top material—unless I was ordering a black alcantara headliner. Then it works fine.

ToddRLockwood said:

They both look pretty cool, especially with a black interior.

On a related item, I'm surprised to see black alcantara now being used on the top of the dash in the areas closest to the occupants. If you order the car with a white alcantara headliner, this creates a bit of a clash, especially if you order wood trim. Too many different materials that don't bend together! CF or Piano Black trim would make this less of an issue. I don't know whether this black alcantara on the dash is going in every car or not, but if I had a choice, I'd request the original dash-top material—unless I was ordering a black alcantara headliner. Then it works fine.

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I did the black alcantara headliner for color-conflict reasons. Not the dash... the "A" pillars. You can see this easily in design studio, and once it catches your eye, it's really disconcerting. Select grey or tan interior, and white alcantara headliner. Look at the bottom of the "A" pillar (between the front and rear door). You now have 3 colors in that area that just don't work.

There are too many combinations that do/don't work to list them here... just make sure your eye really sees the bottom of the "A" pillar when you are finalizing your choices.



And, thanks to Joe Restrepo at the North-Park Dallas store who pointed this out to me. Caused me to change my mind, just slightly, about my final config.

Danal said:

I did the black alcantara headliner for color-conflict reasons. Not the dash... the "A" pillars. You can see this easily in design studio, and once it catches your eye, it's really disconcerting. Select grey or tan interior, and white alcantara headliner. Look at the bottom of the "A" pillar (between the front and rear door). You now have 3 colors in that area that just don't work.

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That's the "B" pillar.

/pedantic

mekberg said:

That's the "B" pillar.

/pedantic

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Thanks. I was trying to figure out what he meant and missed the description of the pillar. I didn't see what he was talking about on the A pillar, decided I clearly wasn't discerning enough, and moved on .

The B pillar does look a little odd in the configuration noted. That said, I'd rarely look at the car from an angle where I could see that, and you can see the black headliner above you. The black headliner in the loaner I drove made the car feel substantially smaller inside. I liked the openness of the lighter headliner and pano roof.

Edit: For reference, pillars are lettered from front to back. A, B, C, D, etc. :wink:

I saw this color combo on a white P85+ at a test drive event a few months back (tan leather, white alcantara headliner). The "B" pillar area as noted by Danal was one of the first things that stuck out at me. I decided my future MS will be either black leather and/or black alcantara headliner for this reason. Probably MC red, black leather, black headliner, carbon fiber.